Shouting Match With Judge Ends In Jail Term

January 5, 1990|By BARBARA WALSH, Staff Writer

Broward County Court Judge Zebedee Wright, who demands respect in his courtroom and enforces it with jail time, sentenced a frustrated defendant to a year in the stockade during a shouting match punctuated with curses and threats last month.

Delman L. Daniels, 23, appeared before Wright at a magistrate`s hearing on Dec. 12. When Daniels cursed at Wright, 55, the two men swore at one another and Wright threatened to take Daniels into a back room and punch him in the mouth.

``It was an earthy conversation that centered around the `F` word,`` said Hal Tager, an assistant public defender who was present during the hearing.

When it was over, Daniels had been handed a one-year jail term for contempt of court and Wright was explaining his own behavior to his superiors.

According to transcripts of the hearing and witnesses, the shouting match started when Daniels, frustrated with the handling of his case, cursed at Wright. Wright promptly sentenced him to six months in jail.

Deputies tried to pull Daniels from the courtroom, but Wright told the bailiff: ``Hold it. Don`t carry him nowhere yet. Turn him around here because I`ll come out there and bust (Daniels) in the mouth.``

Daniels swore again and Wright gave him another six months in jail.

That didn`t stop Daniels from cursing Wright again, and Wright left the bench and charged up to the defendant.

``You want to go in that back room with me?`` Wright challenged.

``I don`t care, man,`` Daniels said.

Daniels was taken to the North Broward Stockade in Pompano Beach, where he is waiting for a public defender to be appointed as his attorney.

Daniels, in an interview at the stockade, said he was wrong. He hopes that will soften the judge and earn him freedom before his scheduled release date of Dec. 12, 1990. But he also says Wright egged him on.

``He was right in my face,`` said Daniels, who was in court initially on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. ``I`ve never seen a judge come off the stand like that and come up to the defendant and swear back. Never.``

Chief Judge Miette Burnstein said she and Judge George Brescher, the administrative judge of the County Court, met with Wright shortly after the incident to talk about his behavior.

``Oh yes, we`ve spoken,`` Burnstein said. ``It`s just not something I want to discuss. We talked about it with Judge Wright and it`ll be taken care of in- house.``

Burnstein declined to say if Wright was disciplined.

Wright, who is on vacation this week, denied that he left the bench and said he did not remember threatening to punch Daniels. He said the consecutive six- month terms were fair punishment for someone behaving as Daniels did.

Daniels is not the first person to be jailed after cursing in Wright`s courtroom. Virginia Blount, 18, of Hollywood spent a few hours in jail in September after swearing at Wright when he refused to let her represent her boyfriend, who was charged with shoplifting.

``That kind of disrespect disrupts a courtroom,`` Wright said at the time. ``Nobody says that kind of foul language in front of me.``

Brian Rothschild of Fort Lauderdale spent 60 days in jail in 1987 after he wrote a ``political bulletin`` describing Wright in derogatory terms after the judge received a $1 million settlement from Delta Air Lines. Wright`s wife, Kathleen, was killed in the crash of Delta Flight 191 near Dallas in 1985.